Turkish court orders detention of two over U.S. court case

Turkey on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two men accused of handing Washington fabricated reports and stealing documents in a case against a top Turkish banker suspected of violating US sanctions on Iran.

The men are being investigated over whether they "destroyed paperwork relating to state security" and stole documents with the intention of using them abroad, according to a statement from the İstanbul public prosecutor.

U.S. authorities charged Zarrab and eight other people, including Turkey's former economy minister and three executives of Turkish state-owned Halkbank, with engaging in transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran.

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who pleaded not guilty, will be the only person on trial in the U.S. case. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman told potential jurots on Monday that Zarrab, who has been the focus of the case, will not go on trial this week. Atilla and Zarrab are the only two defendants who were arrested by U.S. authorities.